Foton Automotive Australia principal Peter Llewellyn remains cagey about the pricing for the range, only revealing that prices will start at $28,000 for the manual 4x2 ?Quality? model and $35,000 for the ?Luxury? 4X4 model. He did not specify which body style this price relates to as there will be a single cab, extra cab and dual cab on offer.

Tunland 4x4 Luxury Model

That places it at a significant disadvantage against fellow Chinese brand Great Wall Motors, whose V240 single cab starts from just $17,990.

Drive got behind the wheel of a Chinese-specification Tunland for a brief time this week. The model we drove was powered by the increasingly popular and highly credible Cummins ISF 2.8 litre diesel. It will be matched to a five-speed manual Getrag gearbox.

A 100kW 2.4-litre petrol petrol engine will also be available at launch and later this year a six-speed ZF automatic is to be offered.

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The use of the Cummins engine is by virtue of a joint venture between Foton and Cummins. Called the Beijing Foton Cummins Engine Company, it produces the 2.8 and its larger 3.8 litre sibling in a recently commissioned engine plant within the Foton manufacturing facility.

The engines produced here are not solely for the benefit of Foton, as the joint venture makes them available to a wide number of manufacturers including JAC, who will be launching their ute in the near future through the WMC Group.

There is no disputing the torque of the Cummins engine ? it pulls like a locomotive and offers good low and mid-range grunt. But lack of adequate sound deadening meant you were hearing every combustion stroke of that diesel in the cabin.

The base model we drove was a ?pre-production? unit (as was every other Tunland we spotted). Foton will not begin production until next month so our drive time was prefaced with the warning that some things ?may not be quite perfect?.

We hope that when production does begin, niggly problems like the rear door armrest cover coming off in your hand and the fit and finish of some of the interior hardware is rectified.

Foton Tunland

Those minor points aside the overall finish and panel fitment of the Tunland was good, but pre-production models are invariably built off-line by hand so anything less would be unacceptable.

Tunland rides on a conventional ladder frame chassis with a live Dana rear axle mounted on leaf springs. The front suspension is your standard double wishbone and shock absorber arrangement. The wheelbase is 3105mm.

As best we could tell the ride was on par with other utes of this genre ? they all ride a bit firm when unladen ? but with no real corners to drive through it is impossible to make a call on the handling and steering characteristics of the Tunland. Depending on the model 16- or 17-inch steel or alloy wheels will be available.

Braking is assisted with anti-lock brakes (ABS) and electronic brake distribution (EBD). There is no electronic stability program (ESP) but a Foton spokesman said such a feature is like to be introduced ?soon?.

Interestingly, Foton claim the Tunland has a four-star European NCAP rating, but a search of that association?s website failed to find any reference to the Tunland or any other Foton product.

In the cabin Tunland breaks no new ground. Two big dials face the driver with additional gauges above and around them. Heater and air conditioning controls along with the sound system are all housed centrally in the dash.

Some switches and dials looked vaguely familiar. For instance, the electric window switches had a distinct Volkswagen appearance as did the aforementioned speedo and tachometer. A coincidence perhaps?

Both driver and passenger get the benefit of SRS airbags but no side curtain airbags are fitted.

On the comfort front, and as best we could determine, the front buckets offered good support every which way but we are intrigued by Foton?s description of the floor covering; ?chemical fibre carpet? they proudly declare.

Our domestic test ute had vinyl seats (remember them?) but FAA say Australian models will offered with either fabric or leather. The door panels on the test ute boasted a touch of ?plastiwood? and FAA say the ?Luxury? Tunland will offer more of those types of highlights.

Between now and the Tunland launch Foton Automotive Australia and Foton Motor have much to do. By their own admission FAA are still in the process of locking in specification and features for each model and Foton needs to ensure the build quality is tight from the start.

FAA executive, Daniel Phelan, told Drive the launch would be delayed if they were not happy with the quality of the vehicles, an honest but unusual admission.

Tunland has excellent street cred with its drivetrain; Cummins engine, Getrag gearbox, Dana rear axle and, in the case of the 4X4 models, a Borg-Warner transfer box. The trick will be to ensure everything else is right.